


The Time Travelers

by rosieblue



Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Biracial Omi, Black Raimundo, Gen, Like a lot of inner turmoil, Time Travel, What if?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 19:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30111033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosieblue/pseuds/rosieblue
Summary: In the original timeline, Omi time-traveled twice, once to see the future and another time to fix it. But what if Omi wasn’t the only one who time-traveled? What if the other Dragons got the same idea?
Kudos: 5





	The Time Travelers

**Author's Note:**

> What's this? Another story that will struggle to update? Well, yeah but it's here. Note: just because a character is tagged doesn't mean this is the chapter they appear in 
> 
> P.S. -- slight mention of suicidal thoughts, a little violence but nothing descriptive

No one was quite sure how it happened but it did. Even when Kimiko, Omi, and Clay discussed that life-changing incident years later, they still came up short-handed and with more questions than they had answers.

All they knew now was the same as they did back then. One morning, they’d all woken up and Raimundo was missing.

No one knew where he’d went and no one had seen him go. Not any of the elder masters, or the apprentices, or any passersby. It was like he’d simply vanished and the only thing he’d left behind was the disconcerting pool of blood they’d found in the woods behind the temple.

Maybe if they’d dug around a little more they’d have discovered the truth but, at the time, they’d earnestly looked everywhere they could.

The truth was that that morning, all those years ago, Raimundo had woken up annoyed. No, _pissed_ to no end and, honestly, who could blame him? He was fifteen and angry and misunderstood and redeemed but-not-really in the eyes of all those who were around him.

At that point, though, he’d been specifically annoyed about one thing. Omi’s taunting about how he’d surely go on the _greatest_ quest and that he’d become the Dragons’ leader. He’d said it way too convincedly, like it wasn’t even a question. Like Raimun—like the _others_ were never viable options.

And, well, Raimundo had a few plans to one-up the little Munchkin That Could. He did his research and he was sure his quest for the Yu Pipa would be just about perfect. It'd be all he'd need and more to prove himself. When he eventually returned with the legendary jade pipe, Raimundo knew it'd be a done deal. He wouldn't be overlooked anymore. 

Other than the essentials, all he needed were a few Shen Gong Wu, which was why he was on his way to the temple vault to get them…fully aware of the suspicions he’d arouse since it was a little after midnight.

“Raimundo?”, a concerned, familiar voice asked as the boy tip-toed his way across the hallway. “What are you doing up?”

Said boy tried to stand as still as he could. “Just going to the bathroom, Master Fung.”

“Really?”, the old man asked. “Do you usually try to be so silent when you go to the bathroom?”

“Yeah, I...”, Raimundo began, brain working overdrive. “I don’t wanna wake up anyone and get yelled at for like three-thousand years.”

Master Fung wasn’t convinced. “How considerate of you.”

“Well”, the boy said, shrugging with a confident smile. “The Bird of Paradise didn’t say kindness was my thing for nothing, right?”

“Sure”, the old man said, still not buying it. “Go on, then.”

Nodding, Raimundo kept his poker face in check and walked away as casually as possible before Master Fung verbally stopped him again.

“Raimundo?”

“Yes, Master Fung?”

“Please”, the old man said, sighing exasperatedly. “Just be careful.”

Feeling a knot forming in his throat, Raimundo nodded before carrying on his way again. Even when he tried shelving his teacher’s words to the back of his head, he couldn’t. Something strange seemed to be happening and the air was still, like a storm was coming. But then again, that was probably his nerves.

Now, if Raimundo knew that he needed to follow Master Fung’s advice more than anything else, there would have been a chance he _would_ have been careful.

But, of course, he didn’t know that. So he hadn’t known that while getting the needed Wu for his quest, he should have avoided the Orb of Tornami.

He hadn’t known that while leaving through the woods he’d encounter a wild animal that caught him off-guard with its heavy scratches. And he wouldn’t have known that fighting with the Orb while running wasn’t the best idea.

See, while running and leaving water everywhere around him, Raimundo eventually came upon a hidden hole in the ground and fell in, harshly hitting his head in the process, and losing control of the Orb, falling out of his hand and continuing its water stream.

Grappling with his head wound and a very ill-timed leg spasm, Raimundo struggled to keep himself afloat. Still spouting water, the heavy Orb had reached the bottom of the hole, which was exactly as bad as it sounded.

_This is the end_ , Raimundo thought as he gasped and struggled to spit out the water. This was how he’d die and now wasn’t that an irony?

He’d set out to beat Omi and yet Omi’s element was currently kicking his ass. It didn’t help that his minutes were numbered and he couldn’t even breathe without inhaling a ton of water and— _wait_ , breathe. That was it!

Okay, so this was a bad time to admit this, especially to himself, but Raimundo truly had no faith in himself. Even after all the work he did to get over his insecurities, they were still there every time he poked at them just hard enough. And they remained for a few reasons. If it wasn’t for capoeira and the little jujitsu he knew, his fighting would have needed serious work and his elemental control was still oddly lacking compared to the others', especially when he needed it. Like now.

Berating himself for almost jinxing it, Raimundo silenced his brain and shifted all his focus to the little air that remained. _This had to work_ , he thought, _this_ had _to work_. It just did.

Although he kinda failed at first, Raimundo did manage to make an oxygen whirlwind, one that looked a little like an astronaut’s helmet, because, well, that was all he could think of in that moment.

He could keep that up, he hoped, as he finally let the water drag him under. Just until the morning when the others would find him and then this could be water under the bridge and, like, thirty-one extra chores.

Sadly, Raimundo’s misfortune didn’t just end there. A couple of hours later, the other temple students woke up and had their showers and breakfasts, not once asking about him because they saw the covered pillow he’d used as a body-decoy and they all knew Raimundo tried his hardest to sleep in till noon.

An hour after breakfast, a livid Omi was standing at the far-off end of the courtyard, right near the woods. He’d told his friends he was now able to control an entire body of water but Kimiko told him he was “talking out of his ass” (meaning he was liar) and Clay told him no one liked a show-off (who was also a liar).

“Well, I _do_ know how”, Omi yelled, unprompted after minutes of silence. “Kimiko, just empty your water bottle and you’ll see what I can do!”

Clay threw the girl, already rolling her eyes, a look. “C’mon, Kim, you know he’ll never quit unless we play along.”

“ _Ugh_ , fine”, Kimiko said, uncapping her water bottle. “But this is the last time I’m playing babysitter. That’s Rai’s job!”

Before she could say anything else—and before Clay could point out how strange it was that Raimundo was _still_ not up—Omi let out a childish war-cry and ran to the courtyard, swiftly moving his hands as he went.

Caught off-guard, Kimiko took a step back. “Dude, what the fuck!”

“I told you I could do it!”, Omi said, ignoring the obvious and sticking his tongue out. “I told you so, I did!”

Tipping his hat to look at the frozen water stream jutting out of the water bottle, Clay whistled.

“Well, I’ll be damned. You really showed us up, little partner. Your elemental control’s growing mighty powerful.”

As Omi proudly smiled and talked some more about perfecting his skills, no one noticed a horrible addition to an old problem. Omi’s elemental control _was_ growing powerful.

It was growing so powerful, it didn’t just solidify the water he was focused on—it also solidified surrounding bodies of water. Even the ones he didn’t know were around.

For lack of better words, that was the final nail in the coffin. And that coffin just so happened to be a frozen lake-crevice with an aspiring Wind Dragon trapped inside.

* * *

A loud, all-too-familiar groan signaled a new fight. “But _Mama_ —”

“I swear to all that’s holy, Risako”, began the all-too-familiar answer. “If you think begging in English will make me rethink what I said because your uncles can understand, you have another thing coming!”

Resigned but exhausted, one of the said uncles peeked his head into the kitchen.

“Kimiko”, he began. “Don’t you think you’re being a little too hard on Riza here? It’s still summer and you’re making this place as friendly as a bramble bush!”

“You know what, Clay”, Kimiko began, deathly sweet. “I don’t recall asking for your input on how to raise my children, so butt out _or_ _else_.”

Smiling sheepishly, Clay gave the girl a look. “Sorry, kiddo.”

“Don’t sweat it, Uncle Clay”, Risako said, smiling appreciatively. “You tried your best. So, do you want me to go to my room or are you taking my phone away?”

“Both”, Kimiko said, crossing her arms. “Leave your phone on the table and go to your room. _Now_.”

“Yeah, I got that”, the girl muttered as she shuffled away, throwing more than one curse as she left.

Equally angry if not more, Kimiko huffed and stomped her way to the kettle and turned it on, more than ready for a cup of _anything_. Clay simply took a seat and watched as his disgruntled friend remembered he was there and put out an extra mug.

“Kim?”

“No, shut up. I can feel you judging me.”

“Good”, Clay said. “It’s because I am. What was that? What were you even fighting about?”

Kimiko really wished he hadn’t said that. “I don’t, I don’t remember.”

“Lady—”

“I know, I’m a shitty mom. I’m sorry I snapped!”

“I wasn’t going to say that”, he lied. “You keep putting yourself under insane pressure, you’ll obviously crack at some point.”

Neither said anything for a while, simply drinking their tea in silence and listening to the pouring rain outside. It was an odd time for rain, but that wasn’t what raised their concern. The rain was too heavy and for an old temple, that couldn’t be too good.

“Guys”, Omi said, walking into the kitchen. “We’ll need the plumber after this. Our pipes are—”

“Shit?”, Clay asked, taking a sip of his tea. “I wonder whose fault that might be.”

The other man sighed. “I already apologized for forgetting that, will you stop reminding me?”

“Well, did you stop reminding me about that one electric bill? You were about ready to crucify me _and_ my boots!”

“I mean, who pays an electrician that much, Clay? He _duped_ you.”

Fully planning to reply back with the harshest retort he’s ever had, Clay’s sentence was cut short by Kimiko, who shushed both men into silence, and pointed to the window.

“Can you guys hear that?”

“Yeah, the pipes are dying”, Omi said, nodding as he grimaced. “Should I call the plumber now?”

Kimiko shook her head. “No, that’s not the pipes. That’s something else, I think.”

“It kinda sounds like when a fissure opens up in the ground”, Clay commented, concernedly scratching his chin.

Sighing, Omi gave the other two a dejected look. “We’ll need to gear up to explore that.”

“Yeah, you’re right”, Clay said, sighing. “Meet you guys in five.”

Ten minutes later, the Xiaolin trio were moving around the courtyard, trying to find where the concerning cracking sounds were coming from. Extremely focused, Omi led them to the edge of the woods.

“I don’t know”, Clay said. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Kimiko nodded. “Same.”

“Plus, my Amabel’s looking at us through her window and I don’t want her to think I’m a hypocrite because I told her to not go in the woods.”

“So? You’ll explain when we get back”, Omi said, shrugging as he walked. “And we’re getting back soon. We’re at the spot, guys.”

The trio set to work almost immediately, leaving no stone unturned as they looked for the origin of the cracking sound. It was extremely easy to tell that it was around the area and that, whatever it was, it wasn’t brought by natural causes.

“It reeks”, Kimiko said, plugging her nose.

Clay agreed. “There’s way too much pent-up _chi_ in here.”

Making to say something, Omi froze for a second with his eyes widening. There was another crack, though it sounded so faint it could barely be heard. It sounded almost like something wrapped in ice.

_But where was the ice here_ , Omi thought, turning around. Even if there was any, it would have melted by now because the heavy rain was everywhere. Shrugging, he kept up his search until he heard something that stopped him in his tracks.

“Did you guys hear—”

“The little voice saying help me”, Kimiko continued. “Yup, sure did.”

She paused. “It sounds young.”

“And familiar”, Clay agreed. “You don’t think it’s someone just messing with us, right? Omi, what do you think?”

Ignoring his friends, Omi tried for a new clue. “Hey, _hey_ , you said you wanted help—can you hear me?”

No one said anything, as they trained their ears to hear. And, sure, enough, there it was. “Help…me.”

“Where are you, partner?”

“Help”, the voice called, seemingly growing stronger now. “Me, _please_.”

Kimiko found it first. “It’s there!”

Following her lead, the trio went to a far-off spot where they found a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it crevice, unassuming in the ground. Clay called out for the voice again.

“Are you here, buddy? We’re coming to get you.”

“Help me”, the voice said again, seeming more aware. “Please…please help me.”

Taking a look into the crevice, Omi pursed his lips. “It’s ice, or it kind of _was_ ice. It hasn’t fully melted.”

“Great, do something then”, Kimiko said.

“Kimiko, you know I can’t. What about the vow we took and—”

“ _Fuck_ the vow for like five seconds, Omi. Someone is going to _die_ in there!”

Gathering his bearings, Omi nodded and focused his attention on the crevice as he pulled and pushed, changing the state of the ice. He was almost there, now thankful for the rain’s help.

“I got it, I got it”, Clay said, reaching into the ground and bending the earth around the crevice to make it wider, easier to see through.

Nodding and taking her cue, Kimiko reached with both arms and pulled out the person trapped inside the crevice. From the vague looks of it, that person was young and exhausted because they’d passed out almost immediately.

There were other details that Kimiko managed to make out, even through the rain. That person was short-haired and skinny and so exhaustingly familiar and she knew why.

“Guys, I—we”, Kimiko began, understandably tripping over her words. “We found him, we found Raimundo.”

* * *

The next day, Raimundo woke up to find himself on a bed—still not a real one—in the infirmary, with a few bandages wrapped around his arms and torso. After scanning the room twice, all he could do was smile.

It was only a dream, _thank_ _Dashi_. Raimundo was on a bed and not trapped deep into a crevice and almost drowning.

“Great”, a voice that sounded neither too excited nor too vexed said. “You’re up.”

Raising an eyebrow, Raimundo didn’t really know what to say. Mostly because this was a stranger and strangers were uncommon in the temple.

“Who are you?”

The stranger shrugged. “A girl, and who are you?”

“You didn’t answer my question, I’m not gonna answer yours”, Raimundo said. “God, my _head_.”

Even though he’d been rude and ignored her presence, the stranger didn’t give up. Instead, she put her hair up in a ponytail and had a curious face on as she studied him. If she took a recorder out, Raimundo wouldn’t have been surprised.

“Take a picture”, he said. “It’ll last longer.”

The girl nodded. “I already did, thank you for the tip.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re annoying as fuck?”

“Pretty much everyone I met, yeah. Your point?”

Snorting, Raimundo shook his head and laid back down on his mat, deciding to completely ignore the girl, for the sake of a headache-less sleep.

“You know”, she said, foiling his plans. “My mom said _you_ made being a nuisance a talent.”

Raimundo opened his eyes. “Your mother? How does your mom even know me?”

“I don’t know. Should I answer you after your attitude?”

“Yeah, this isn’t daycare”, he said. “Look, let’s start over. I’m Raimundo Araujo Pedrosa and you’re…?”

“Ito Risako”, she said, proudly.

“You’re Japanese?”

“Well, _duh_.”

Raimundo sighed. “Okay, so how does your mother know me?”

“She said you were old friends, that you go way back.”

“But I don’t know any Ito”, he said, wracking his brain. Risako _did_ seem oddly familiar for a reason he couldn't put his finger on just yet. “Did she say how far back? She from São Paulo?”

Risako smiled. “No, we’re from Tokyo. And she did say how far back, but—”

“I told you we’ll find her in here”, another young voice said. “Risako, you can’t just go and annoy the injured!”

“Oh, take the stick out your ass, Ama”, Risako said. “I’m talking with an old friend.”

The other girl, Ama, fully stepped into the room. She was Risako’s age and had a familiar disapproving frown on her face. She wasn’t alone either because two boys, one about a year older and one a few years younger, followed her in.

“Are you insane”, the new girl said, with a semi-detectable accent. “Are you _actually_ stupid, Riza?”

“Watch it”, Risako said. “Or I’m gonna sh—”

The older boy took this as a sign to step in. “Don’t. You know Amabel’s right. This is stupid and the adults told us to steer clear of this room.”

He paused, throwing Raimundo a look. “No offense.”

“None taken”, Raimundo said, having trouble following the conversation. “I guess.”

Risako huffed. “Since when do you listen to what the adults say? What do they know? They’re _adults_.”

“Osric”, the older boy said, giving up as he turned to Raimundo to introduce himself. “And these are Amabel and Ruka, now excuse us. We’ll leave so you could rest.”

“Wait, wait, before you leave”, Raimundo began. “Can you tell me who her mother is? She said the woman knows me.”

“You did _what_ ”, Osric said at the same time little Ruka beamed and said, “You’re meeting her soon. I told her we’re here!”

At that, the three other teenagers gave the boy a look. Blinking slowly, Amabel began. “Ruka, you told your mother that we’re here…in the one room we’re _not_ allowed in?”

“Yup!”

“You _idiot_ ”, Risako began before switching to a harsher tone in Japanese. Whatever she said, it must have been bad because Ruka tried and failed to be unbothered as his lower lip kept jutting out.

Strangely, that last detail bothered Raimundo. This was the first time meeting any of these people but that one expression was so familiar it hurt. There was _something_ about it, too, like he’d seen it before.

Before Raimundo had a chance to ask, the door was flung open and a group of people hurried into the room, with varying degrees of horror on their faces. Sitting up straight, Raimundo scanned the crowd and found that two—no, _three_ of these faces were familiar.

“Who”, he began, clearing his throat. “Who are you people?”

The sole woman seemed to have trouble blinking. “We can’t tell you now. You need to get enough rest first.”

“I already got some sleep—”

“How about some more, buddy”, one man, white and blond with a slightly receding hairline, said. “It can’t possibly hurt, right?”

Raimundo clicked his tongue in annoyance. “I’m _not_ going back to sleep and if you don’t tell me who the fuck you are and where I am, I swear—”

“Fine, fine”, a dark-skinned Chinese man said. “We’re going to tell you but we’re going to need everyone else to leave.”

At this, the teenagers knew they had to leave and some did begin moving along to the door. Others didn’t really want to budge.

“Risako”, the one woman began, before lowering her voice and continuing in Japanese what sounded like an incredibly threatening sentence. It did its purpose, though, and Risako trudged along.

After the door was shut, Raimundo was left alone with the three familiar strangers, sporting different expressions of awe, shock, and sadness. It wasn’t incredibly comfortable, so he cleared his throat.

“So”, Raimundo began. “Can you start telling me where I am?”

The two men shared a look before the white man with the southern accent began, “You’re at the Xiaolin Temple.”

“The one in Dengfeng?”

“Yes”, the Chinese man said. “And we know it might seem different than what you know, but trust me, it’s the same.”

Raimundo nodded. “Okay and _who_ are you?”

The three shared more looks as they quietly discussed what to say and how to say it. That, too, was familiar to Raimundo but he still couldn’t pinpoint why.

“Rai”, the woman, who he hadn’t told his name, began. “Raimundo, can’t you recognize us?”

Blinking slowly, Raimundo almost shook his head before he realized that these people were familiar in a way that was getting quite annoying. It didn’t help that the woman was now sporting the same expression that boy, Ruka, had on earlier.

_Funny_ , Raimundo thought. The way her jaw was stubbornly jutting out, as if she was trying not to cry or scream, vaguely reminded him of Kimiko. As soon as that thought came, Raimundo’s eyes widened.

“No, no”, he said. “You’re not—but that just can’t be right, I didn’t time-travel. I don’t have the Sands!”

Clay, the white man with the receding hairline, nodded. “But it _is_ us, Rai, you’re right.”

“But I don’t, I _told_ you I don’t have the Sands.”

“You found another way then”, the woman, Kimiko, said. “And now you’re here.”

The dark-skinned Chinese man, Omi, agreed. “You used my Orb of Tornami to freeze yourself, we found it in the crevice. I, uh, I should know since I invented that trick.”

“The Orb”, Raimundo repeated, trying to piece his memories together. “But I didn’t _do_ that, I wasn’t trying to use the Wu for that. I was attacked by this, this _thing_ and I was defending myself.”

A pause. “I got trapped in this hole but how did I get frozen? I don’t have any ice powers.”

“I don’t know”, Omi said, barely remembering the day. “But you did get frozen and that means you stayed the same and none of us did, so it _is_ like time-travelling.”

Pausing to exhale a sigh that seemed trapped in for too long, Omi walked over to where Raimundo sat and took his seat next to him. He seemed a little hesitant about something but nodded to himself and went for it anyway.

“Uh”, Raimundo began, weirded out and wanting to cry all at once. “ _What_ are you doing?”

Omi’s voice was slightly threatening. “Hugging you. You have no idea what happened with us. We thought we lost you.”

“It’s been decades, Rai”, Kimiko said, beckoning him closer as she opened her arms for a hug. “I really missed you.”

As Raimundo left her hug to walk right into Clay’s, he was vaguely aware of her last sentence.

“Jesus fuck, _decades_?! How long was I in there?”

“Don’t panic, partner”, Clay said, roughly patting his back. “Just forget about that for four seconds and let us celebrate that you’re still al—that you’re still here.”

Taking his time to gauge out his friend’s hidden word, Raimundo nodded as his friends took their seats around his sleeping mat. Clay was going to say ‘alive’, wasn’t he? So they thought he was dead before.

Raimundo scanned the scene as his friends talked about as many random topics as they could muster, not really hiding their intentions. They wanted him to feel at ease and normal, but really this was anything other than that.

Clay had less hair, no hat, and one wrinkle that stayed a second too long after a frown. Looking actually old enough to be someone's cool aunt, Kimiko had a bob even though the last time he’d spoken to her she’d vehemently condemned it. Omi was impressively tall and had an actual jawline and _hair_.

Meanwhile, Raimundo was still fifteen and seriously uncomfortable.

“So”, he began, cursing how his voice chose the worst moment to crack. “How many years did I jump through?”

Kimiko ran a finger through her short hair. “I’d say about twenty-three, give or take.”

“That’s about right”, Clay said. “Well, I’ll be! It really _has_ been decades.”

Raimundo sighed, trying to calm himself down. “This is just feeling like a bad acid trip. I never tried it but it’s on my bucket lis—”

He shook his head. “I mean, look at you guys. _You_ have hair now and _you_ barely do!”

“Don’t comment on a man’s appearance like that, Raimundo”, Clay said, self-consciously fluffing his hair.

Omi couldn’t help the arrogance in his smirk. “I just stopped shaving it and it blossomed, thank you for noticing.”

“Hey, what about me?”, Kimiko asked, laughing playfully. “What, I didn’t change?”

Twitching a little, Raimundo tried to keep a still face. He could barely look her in the eyes now.

“Not really. All that moisturizing did you good.”

“Come on, Rai”, she said, more than curious now. “Not even a little?”

He shrugged. “I mean, you got taller. And you—never mind.”

“No, tell me. I want to know.”

“I was gonna say you got hot—I mean _cute_ , like cute-cute”, Raimundo said, realizing how his words sounded a little too late. “ _Fuck_ , I just got how that sounds.”

Left eye twitching, Kimiko managed an awkward chuckle. “Wow, he’s _really_ back!”

Both unable to contain themselves, Clay and Omi burst out in laughs that went on for a considerable amount of time. Personally, Raimundo didn’t think it was that funny but the more they laughed, the more it appeared that their laughter was more of their sakes than his.

After what seemed like forever, Omi cut the good mood short and coughed. “So, we should probably fill you in on all that happened since you disappeared.”

“Yeah, yes”, Raimundo said, straightening his back. “I’m dying to know just what—”

“It’s not like it’s been _nothing_ but dramatic changes”, Clay cut in, explaining. “But you should know that we did our best, considering.”

“I’m not going to judge you or anything, don’t worry.”

A pause. “So…?”

“Uh, okay”, Kimiko said when no one else began. “Let’s take a walk.”

* * *

To say that Raimundo was overwhelmed by the changes that had been done to the temple would have been an understatement. As he and his old friends walked, the time-traveler mentally noted that a lot of things seemed to have been removed or added or altered all together.

“You painted the tearoom peach”, Raimundo commented as they passed the room. “I thought Master Fung didn’t like that color.”

Omi seemed annoyed. “Yes, but he left a long time ago, Raimundo.”

“What do you mean left? Did he like leave monkhood as a whole?”

“No”, Omi said, shrugging. “He went to another temple.”

Raimundo couldn’t believe it. “He went to _what_ —”

“Kim’s getting to that part soon, partner”, Clay said, barely giving him a look. “Just listen.”

Clearing her throat again, Kimiko began. “Like I was saying, we’d looked everywhere for you but we couldn’t get any leads so we looked through your things. But that didn’t give us any leads either.”

She paused to sigh. “All we found were some of your old journals but you’d written in nothing other than Portuguese so we had to translate them first and—and, they were kinda explicit.”

“I remember those”, Raimundo said, nodding. His gut lurched as he remembered exactly what he’d been writing. It felt like it was only yesterday and, to him, that was kinda true. “But they were private and they weren’t meant to be seen by anyone. I was just…I was just writing my thoughts.”

“Yeah but we had nothing else”, Kimiko said. “So we took them as a clue and then we found that blood in the woods. _Your_ blood.”

Another pause. “So we thought that you might have done something to yourself.”

“Oh”, Raimundo said, feeling like he was punched in the gut.

He could easily see how his friends got to that conclusion, considering that—like any fifteen year-old with the weight of the world on their shoulders—he did get into some explicit depressive details that he realized were…well, he saw where his friends came from now.

That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, though, that they saw traces of blood and a few journals and considered him dead.

Remembering something crucial, Raimundo raised an eyebrow. “But if you didn’t find my body then how did you just assume I was dead?”

Sharing a look with Kimiko, Clay’s face was grim. “That was what made us skeptical of it at first. See, I for one didn’t think it made sense that you’d lost that much blood but your body wasn’t around.”

“Yeah but you just said that you still thought I was dead?”

“We only got to that conclusion about a month afterwards”, Omi said, avoiding his eyes. “Because we found that brown bear’s den.”

He paused. “We found pieces of your old hoodie there too, with blood all over them, so we thought, you know, we thought that was what did it.”

When Raimundo said nothing, Kimiko added in a softened voice. “We didn’t want to believe it, you know, because we’ve never found wild animals in our woods before but then those reports about that missing circus bear came out.”

“So you all thought I offed myself”, Raimundo began. “And then you thought that I was killed by a runaway circus bear.”

He paused a little, sighing. “I mean, I’d be blind not to see the irony of the bear thing, though.”

Clay patted his back as the group walked, following Omi who ended up leading the way. At that point, they’d already passed a few guest rooms, the meditation hall, and the unchanged scroll room and had now reached the front courtyard.

Among everything else, Raimundo noticed first the human-sized statue in the middle of the courtyard.

“Is that…”, Raimundo began, trailing off as he approached the statue. “What the hell?”

From afar, it vaguely looked like a common statue but when he came closer he could clearly see it. The thick eyebrows, the wide nose, even the haircut. It was a statue of _him_ , the kind of statue made for people others wanted to remember.

Scanning the statue in full, he noticed that plaque at the bottom with a phrase written in Portuguese— _find the freedom you couldn’t find in life and go with God_.

Raimundo read that second part in his mother’s voice, which made him tear up until he became well-aware of the eyes on his back. Blinking away the tears, he reverted to his favorite coping mechanism.

“They never get the smile right”, he sarcastically said, as if being portrayed in statue-form was an everyday thing for him. “I mean, what were you paying them for, right?”

“I told my father to commission this statue a year after you disappeared”, Kimiko said, trying to keep her tone neutral. “We didn’t want to forget you and we wanted newcomers to know who you wer—are.”

“Putting a big-ass statue of me in the middle of the courtyard must make it easy”, Raimundo joked. “And people seem to know me. Risako said me and her mom were old friends but I don’t really know who she is.”

Kimiko raised an eyebrow. “She said that?”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you, now she’s double-grounded”, she said before noticing his confused look as he failed to connect the dots. “ _Right_. She was talking about me—I’m her mom.”

“You’re her mom”, Raimundo repeated and just couldn’t believe. Even though he'd had a feeling, he desperatedly wished it wasn't true and that maybe his cool aunt theory was actually the real deal. He threw Clay a quick, helpless look. “You had a _kid_.”

Kimiko shrugged. “Two actually. You met Ruka.”

“Two kids”, the boy said, redundantly. “And the rest of you?”

“I have my Amabel Lynn”, Clay proudly said. “You saw her too.”

Raimundo barely nodded. This _had_ to be a dream. “And obviously you picked the whitest name. What about you Omi? There was a fourth kid sneaking into my room.”

“I’m not Osric’s father”, Omi said, to his friend’s momentary relief. “But I _am_ mentoring him right now. It’s a whole program, I won’t bore you with the details.”

“So you all have kids”, Raimundo said, feeling a little lightheaded. “I need to sit down!”

Kimiko sat down next to him and gave him a little side-hug that would have normally cheered him up but now made him feel sad and strange. Clearing his throat, Raimundo tried to find a new subject.

Thankfully, Clay found one for him. “We don’t wanna shock you too much but I think we should tell you we kinda got a fourth member when you disappeared.”

“Tactful”, Kimiko said, reaching forward to flick the cowboy in the ear. “And you’re supposed to be the diplomatic one!”

Omi raised his voice to drown out his friends, directing his gaze to Raimundo. “He’s on a spiritual mission right now so you might not get to meet him.”

He paused. “Consider yourself lucky.”

“Is he annoying?”, Raimundo said, trying to mask his glee. “Or, like, the bossy type?”

Clay made a so-so sign. “Both, we can say both.”

“Ugh”, Raimundo said, suddenly getting an image he’d never wanted to picture. “Please tell me you did _not_ recruit Jack Spicer. If I had to be replaced, I wish you would’ve found someone better.”

“Good one”, Kimiko said, laughing a little. “I wish we did.”

“What do you mean you wish—”

Before the full question left Raimundo’s mouth, he noticed a familiar green and red silhouette flying closer and closer by the second. Smiling and excited to see the ancient dragon, Raimundo saw that Dojo wasn’t alone. The person he was carrying looked familiar, dressed in red and white robes.

“Raimundo!”, Dojo yelled, throwing the stranger off his back and shrinking to his regular size. “It’s really you, I thought I was just seeing things!”

Hugging the small dragon, Raimundo tried not to seem too pained by the claws digging into his back; Dojo just missed him after all.

“It _is_ me!”, he said. “And dude, you’re not gonna believe this. I was trapped in this—”

“Yes, yes, the old ice self-preservation gag”, the stranger said as he walked closer. “Who hasn’t done that once or twice? Good to see you back, Raimundo.”

Raimundo wasn’t feeling the overfriendliness. “Who are you?”

“Well, if that doesn’t hurt my self-esteem”, the stranger jokingly said. “What, can’t you recognize me? I thought they made you study me to death here.”

After a slightly dramatic pause, the stranger sighed. “Fine, I guess I’ll tell you. I’m Dashi. You know, the Grandmaster? Kinda took your place here. Sorry, kid.”

Mouth open as he got ready to joke, Raimundo glanced at his friends’ faces before speaking.

To his shock, he saw Omi giving him an apologetic look as Clay and Kimiko both avoided his eyes. So, Raimundo, thought. That _was_ his replacement.

Still, he attempted a smile for their sakes. “I’m gonna go. You guys were right, I still need to rest.”

* * *

Raimundo avoided his friends for the next two days, which sucked because he _really_ didn’t want to.

In his eyes, though, he simply had to. Everything was strange now and he—because he was still fifteen and awkward and _himself_ , of all people—didn’t know any other way to cope with this.

Keeping a simple routine between sleeping in the infirmary and only leaving to use the bathroom or get a quick snack, Raimundo kept a mental checklist of all that he knew so far. It went like this:

He’d been frozen in ice for twenty-three years. He was recovering from a concussion and had a few healing scars from that bear attack. His friends were seriously _old_ now and they had kids. He had no idea what happened to his family and he didn’t feel like looking for anyone online and accidentally discovering that one of them died. His friends’ kids were _seriously_ annoying.

And that wasn’t it. The temple had new elders and his team had a new-him, a replacement Dragon, who just happened to be the greatest Xiaolin warrior history had ever been.

_Yup_ , Raimundo sarcastically thought. Wasn’t that something! But even with all these influx of half-assed information, he still had no answers to his real questions. Come to think of it, Raimundo didn’t even have enough time to think them.

“You know”, Risako said on the second day, prancing around the infirmary. “You’ll need to get out there eventually. Stop being such a wimp.”

From his perch on the windowsill, Raimundo flipped her off. “You don’t know what I’ve been through. I was attacked by a bear _and_ _then_ I fell into a ditch _and_ _then_ I almost drowned until _something_ trapped me in ice for, like, a quarter of a century.”

He paused. “I’m traumatized, okay?”

“So are they”, she said, shrugging. “Mama and the others. Every time we pass a circus tent or the news mention a circus coming to town, Ruka and I have the mother of all curfews and we’re not allowed to leave her sight. Imagine that!”

“Sounds overprotective”, Raimundo allowed, still trying to make sense of Kimiko being a mom. “But I get it, she doesn’t want you to end up like me.”

Scoffing, he added. “ _Wow_ , I thought I had like three more years before I became a cautionary tale.”

Turning to face the view, Raimundo went back into analyzing the scene outside. His recent favorite activity. He saw nothing but a few apprentice monks doing their training, a sight that would have normal if it wasn’t for the looming statue in view.

A loud laugh in the distance signaled Dashi’s passing near the monks, which promptly made Raimundo wrinkle his nose and turn away. This still didn’t make sense.

What also didn’t make sense was the way Risako was looking at him when he turned, studying him as if he was going to launch into a circus trick at any minute. He raised a confused eyebrow.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

If nothing else, Raimundo knew _that_ tone. Exactly like her mother’s. “What do you want? I know it’s not nothing.”

“Fine, it’s not nothing”, Risako said, sighing. “I just wanted—never mind.”

“No”, he said, verbally stopping her from turning. “What is it?”

Her shoulders tensed, with the air of someone who knew they were going to get yelled at.

“I was going to ask you if you could do something, like a little trick, with the wind. I’ve, I never really saw a Dr—a _Wind_ Dragon in action before.”

Taking a minute to breathe, she added. “And Grandmaster Dashi doesn’t even allow us on missions and neither does my mom. And we’re only here for summer anyway, so I just don’t get to see any of it.”

“It’s cool, it’s cool”, Raimundo said, noticing how tense she was. “I mean, I’m a little confused because it’s not that different than what any of the others do. Just a different element.”

Risako nodded, smiling sheepishly. “Right, just a different element.”

“No, don’t tell me”, he began, reading into her words. “You’ve never seen Kimiko with her element? Or Clay? Omi?”

“None of them, no. They don’t use them.”

“You mean, not around you and the other kids?”

“I mean, no, _period_ ”, Risako said. “I don’t really get it but when I asked Mama, she said it was some sort of vow they had to take when they finished their Dragon training.”

Raimundo furrowed his eyebrows. “But that doesn’t make sense. We’re supposed to use our elements.”

“That’s what I said”, the girl said. “But then she yelled at me and told me to go back to homework so it wasn’t the best conversation.”

A pause. “Anyway, that’s why I wanted to see you with your element. Just curiosity, you know.”

“It’s fine”, Raimundo said, getting off the windowsill. “But I’m kinda rusty so I can only do the basics.”

“Oh, anything will do, trust me!”

“Okay, here goes”, he said, getting into the stance for the simplest form he could think of. Breathing for focus and recollection, Raimundo heard Master Fung’s voice in his head telling him how to move his arms and how to call his element.

Surprisingly, this form felt now just like the first time. An unbelievable relief at the wind being under his control, working with him rather than against him to form something of a miniature whirlwind.

“It’s not the toughest form”, Raimundo said, smirking. “But yeah, this is generally how it is.”

Risako slowly nodded. “That was _awesome_.”

Smiling, she took a minute to breathe before her smile dropped into a critical look.

“I don’t know why, but I kinda thought you wouldn’t be able to do shit, considering your coma—you look like a guy who could take centuries to do the most basic things.”

“Hey, put a little respect on my name”, Raimundo said, wagging a finger at her. “I could have been your uncle.”

Risako scoffed. “I doubt that I would have respected you either way.”

“You know what? Kimiko mentioned that you’re double-grounded”, he said. “And I’m starting to think I should remind her of that.”

She smiled condescendingly. “Yeah, _sure_ , like you’re gonna snitch on me.”

“I don’t have to listen to this”, Raimundo said, indignantly. “I’m going to get something to eat. Don’t follow me.”

Thankfully, Risako didn’t follow Raimundo to the kitchen, which gave him plenty of time to mentally beat himself up for ever trying to say anything that wasn’t small talk. Why couldn’t he just let her little insults go?

Sighing, Raimundo walked into the kitchen and immediately went to the fridge to rummage for anything to eat. He grabbed a bag of chips before a cough alerted him he wasn’t alone.

“Rai”, Clay said, good-naturedly. “We’re having a few snacks here with our tea. Wanna join us?”

Omi gestured to the teapot. “There’s extra water, grab a mug.”

“Yeah”, Raimundo said, nodding. How the _hell_ didn’t he notice them there? “Sure. I’ll do that.”

Taking a seat next to Kimiko, partially because it was the only empty seat, he tried not to look too awkward as Omi poured him his tea. Then, he tried to keep that same non-awkward expression when Kimiko rubbed his arm, consolingly.

“Yabai”, she said, smiling at him sympathetically. “I can’t imagine being in your shoes. You must have a million questions.”

Clearing her throat, she added. “We don’t want to harass you into asking but, Rai, just know we’re here for you. You’re still our friend.”

“I, uh, I”, Raimundo began, taking time in looking at his friends’ supportive expressions. “I do have a few questions.”

Omi made a vague gesture. “Shoot. We have all day.”

“Okay”, the time-traveler said. Despite the knot in his stomach, he asked, “How is my family doing? I thought about searching, you know, but I chickened out at the last minute.”

Clay coughed a little. “Your family is okay, Rai, we made sure of that. They’re all doing okay, but we don’t really have any contact with them anymore. Not since your grandmother died.”

“ _Clay_!”, Kimiko exclaimed while Omi audibly face-palmed. “Oh my God!”

Realizing what he said a little too late, the cowboy’s face paled. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said, I should _not_ have said that.”

“No, no, it’s okay”, Raimundo said, trying to keep his lower lip from wobbling. A world without his Vovó just didn’t seem right. “I mean, she wasn’t going to live forever, right?”

Aggressively wiping his eyes now, he added. “What about everyone else?”

“Like Clay said”, Omi said, swiftly taking over. “They’re all okay but they don’t have any communication with the temple. But that’s okay, we figured that would happen eventually.”

Kimiko sighed. “They really stopped contacting us after we brought Dashi back as your replacement. They saw that as us giving up all hope.”

“ _Why_ did you bring Dashi back?”, Raimundo said, barely hiding the hurt tone out of his voice. He wasn’t even planning on getting into that—he knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help it. It hurt, being replaced like that. “Couldn’t you just recruit someone else?”

“Well, that’s the thing”, she said, smiling sadly. “We didn’t want anyone else, we wanted _you_. And after we found your hoodie and your blood at that bear’s den, we thought you died, so we tried bringing you back.”

Raimundo’s face paled. “You mean like a—”

“Like a spell”, Clay said, confirming his suspicions. “We had this whole talk with the council and we convinced them to let us at least try.”

Omi smiled. “That was all Clay. They really didn’t want to budge and let us try bringing you back with magic, of all things.”

“Anyway, we did that”, Kimiko said, picking up the story. “The spell we did was supposed to summon back the last Dragon who died on temple grounds.”

“But I didn’t die”, Raimundo said, squinting a little. “So…”

“But you didn’t die”, she agreed, sighing. “So we brought back the last Dragon who died on temple grounds. It just wasn’t you.”

Clay took a sip of his tea. “The elders were ecstatic about having Dashi back, y’know, so they didn’t really care he turned out to be a douchebag.”

“I could have told you that”, Omi muttered. “But no one ever asks me anything around here.”

“I already apologized for ignoring you that day, Omi, give me a break”, the cowboy snippily said. “Anyway, Dashi joined us and then he started bossing us around, acting like he was the big man in charge and whatnot.”

That last phrase reminded Raimundo of something that had seemed crucial a few days ago. It just childish now, what he’d stolen those few Wu for. That one thing he wanted to prove to the world, to the temple, to Omi. What he was _literally_ here for.

“I forgot to ask”, he said, in what felt like an extremely low voice. “Who’s the leader now?”

Sharing a look with the others, Kimiko bitterly chuckled. “I am, but it really doesn’t feel like it.”

A pause. “Dashi practically overlooked everything I had to say until I thought ‘you know what, if he wants to be leader so bad, let him have it’.”

“Bad move”, Omi said, more to Raimundo than anyone else. “Seriously bad move. Like, Kimiko’s leadership skills were dubious at best but Dashi? Heavens save us; he was the worst!”

“Was?”, Raimundo said, though he wasn’t surprised. “You’re not following him anymore?”

Clay shook his head. “Well, no, pal. We kinda all left the temple years ago.”

“Don’t worry”, Kimiko said, putting a hand up. “We didn’t exactly let the Heylin get what they want; Dashi has enough power to keep them at bay. He really didn’t need us.”

Pausing to take a sip of her tea, she bitterly added. “He loves reminding us of that.”

“Huh”, Raimundo said, taking his time to look every one of his friends in the eye. “So, you brought Dashi back then you left the temple and vowed to never use your elements again?”

Noticing the bewildered looks, the boy exasperatedly added, “Risako told me.”

“Kimiko, control your child”, Omi said, in a voice that hinted he said this too many times to count.

Said woman sighed. “She’s already grounded; what more do you want me to do?”

“You don’t need to do anything”, Raimundo said, hurriedly defending the girl. “I pushed her into telling me why things are so different here so she slipped.”

A pause. “Why would you guys stop using your elements? We’re _supposed_ to use them for good.”

“We already told you, partner”, Clay said, shrugging. “We didn’t have anything to use them for. And besides—they only seem to bring bad luck to everyone around us, ourselves included.”

Omi nodded, adding. “We didn’t want to be used then forgotten, like what—we just didn’t want that.”

“Like what happened to me”, Raimundo said, picking up on what he tried to hide. This was the second time he was used as a cautionary tale and it wasn’t even noon yet. “You can say that, I won’t be mad.”

Pausing, Raimundo racked his brain trying to think of anything that wasn’t sensitive to dive into.

“So since it looks like you all got your shit together”, he began, trying to sound funnier than he felt. “Can I guess if some of you got married?”

Though she still gave him that annoying sympathetic look, Kimiko played along. “You don't have to; it's those two right here.”

“Yeah, I got married alright”, Clay said, proudly as he played along. He dug his phone out of his pocket and scrolled a little until he found a photo he proudly showed the time-traveler. “I hope you meet him too.”

“Cool, I hope so too. So, uh, what’s his name?”

“His name’s Michael Rudd.”

Pausing to mutter a quick prayer, the cowboy added. “But Michael’s a nickname. His legal name is Paul.”

“Paul Rudd?”, Raimundo slowly said, forgetting about his misery. “Like the actor?”

“Yeah, it’s the same name but—”

“Oh my God”, Raimundo said, not really paying attention anymore. “I have so many Ant-man jokes, I don’t know what to begin with.”

Clay put a hand up. “Please, don’t begin at all, Rai.”

“Nice try”, the boy said. “I’m already planning on it, can’t stop me.”

“But you didn’t even hear who Omi is married to yet”, Clay quickly said, attempting to divert. “You won’t believe it! It’s someone we know, someone _you_ knew.”

Omi gave him a look. “Clay! What the hell, anything he knows now can be used to change the timeline and—”

“We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it, shut up”, Clay said, waving him off. “Any guesses, Rai?”

Raimundo smirked. He didn’t have a clue but that wasn’t stopping him. “I’ll guess until I get it right. Is it—”

“Don’t do that”, Omi sternly said, shooting the cowboy a glare. “I’m serious, this could really fuck things up for us. Maybe you don’t care enough, Clay, but I do—he knows too much already.”

“You’re no fun”, Clay said, as Raimundo blanched at hearing Omi, the same man who used to be tiny-munchkin Omi, curse so openly. “But fine, I get it. No more details.”

“Good”, Omi said, taking one look at his vibrating phone before getting up. “I have to take this, excuse me.”

“Sure”, Raimundo said, giving him a nod before turning to the last friend he didn’t ask. “So, Kimiko, you’re not mar—”

A loud girlish yell sounded across the hall and into the kitchen, alerting Clay, who set down his teacup and got up immediately. “That sounds like Ama. I sure hope she didn’t twist her ankle again.”

Unmoving, Kimiko threw him a look. “If any of my kids are involved, tell them—”

“To go to their rooms and think about what they did”, Clay began. “And that they’re not allowed internet access for the rest of the week, got it.”

“Thank you”, she said, turning back to the time-traveling boy. “You were saying, Rai?”

“Um, well, I was asking”, Raimundo began, uncomfortably. He didn’t want to ask her when they were alone. “You’re not married?”

Kimiko shook her head. “No, but I was.”

“Divorce?”

“No, murder.”

At his incredulous look, she laughed. “Of course, it was divorce, dude, what the fuck?”

Sighing, she added. “My first marriage didn’t really work out because it was kinda hurried, you know. I thought I was ready but I wasn’t. Classic.”

“Your first?”, Raimundo asked, caught off-guard. “I’m not judging or anything, but how many times have you been married?”

“Two and a half”, Kimiko said. “Risako’s father then I got engaged to this woman but it didn’t last long. And then there was Ruka’s dad, which _also_ didn’t last. But it’s for the best, I’m _finally_ happy.”

Nodding, she trailed off into a lot of menial details. And, not surprised by anything at this point, Raimundo trailed off, too, and thought about his own life. Or rather, what _could_ have been his life.

If he hadn’t put it into his head to leave that night for that quest, he could have lived a completely different life. He could have grown up like all his friends did. No, he could done something else. He could have chosen a different path entirely. Sure, Raimundo didn’t exactly have all his views on life and work and marriage worked out yet but he didn’t get the chance to _think_ about it.

He’d never had a life, Raimundo realized. Or even the chance to have one, not like everyone else did.

“Hey”, he began, minutes after she stopped ranting. “Can I ask you something?”

Kimiko put down her teacup. “Sure, anything. What’s on your mind?”

“Is it wrong of me”, Raimundo began, carefully choosing his words. “To resent that everything changed? I get it, it’s out of my control and everything but…does that make me a horrible person? To be angry?”

“Of course not”, she said, giving him a look. “It’s perfectly natural to be angry that everything changed. At least, _you_ have a reason. Most of us already do that without needing one.”

A pause. “You know, when I was nineteen I—”

“I was going to ask you out”, Raimundo said, unprompted and nervous. Immediately, he wished he’d said nothing but it was too late to backtrack. “I was—I _wanted_ to. I’d been planning it for a while.”

“ _That’s_ why you were avoiding me”, Kimiko said, relief coloring her face. “I thought I said something that pissed you off and it must have been serious because you never avoided me that long before.”

A pause. “I kept thinking that the last time I saw you…you didn’t even want to talk to me.”

“I’m sorry”, Raimundo said, genuinely. “I just didn’t know how to deal with that, I thought you’d see right through me and I didn’t want—I wanted to ask you out properly.”

Kimiko smiled. “Why didn’t you?”

“I took too long in planning”, he said, cursing his stupidity. “And now you have kids who are _my_ age.”

She patted him on the back. “Better luck next time.”

“Sure. Next time.”

“What, you’re not planning on going back? You _do_ know we’re not gonna leave you stranded here.”

Raimundo shrugged. “Maybe I _should_ be stranded here. I mean, I disappeared off the face of the earth and everyone’s life is going great.”

“Rai”, Kimiko began, sighing. “That’s not true.”

“It is!”, he insisted. “You guys have normal lives now and, like, families. Dashi’s taking care of the whole conflict thing and he’s the best even if he’s annoying. And you said my family’s doing okay.”

A pause. “Everyone’s happy now. And—and I already thought that this might happen if I didn’t exist anymore but seeing it in action hits different.”

Another pause. “I think this would be the right thing to do, you know. The selfless thing. Let everyone else keep their happy ending.”

“Are you done?”, Kimiko said, hand on her cheek. “Because that is the stupidest, most selfish thing I ever heard.”

“But—”

“But _nothing_ ”, she said, giving him a well-practiced mom glare. “You have no idea how everything was when you disappeared. No one was okay and no one got over that.”

Kimiko’s glare softened, but her words didn’t. “Every night, I woke up to hear Omi crying because he didn’t follow you when he heard you get out of bed that night. And he still thinks it’s his fault.”

Another pause. “And Master Fung—you know the real reason why Master Fung’s not here anymore? He couldn’t face us after he let you go to the woods that night. He said he wasn’t fit to teach us anymore.”

“You could”, Raimundo slowly began. “You could call him and tell him—”

“We already did”, Kimiko said. “He said he can’t come back here because he still failed you.”

“But I—”

“And Clay, oh, he didn’t want to continue with the temple anymore”, she said, giving him no room to talk. “He was the first go, oh, and your mom—I _swear_ , Raimundo, even today, I still hear her screaming in my ear.”

A pause. “I thought about her a lot, you know. About you too, we all did.”

Giving him a look, she added, “Your disappearance really changed everything.”

“I’m sorry”, Raimundo said, starting to fully grasp what she said. “I didn’t mean you didn’t care, I just, I thought this is a different future than the one any of us could have had. Like, better-different.”

A pause. “Did my mom really…do that? Scream at you?”

“Yes”, Kimiko said. “She did that and she moved here for a few months to find you because she wasn’t convinced you died. Then, she got convinced and cut all contact with the temple. Then, Clay left and it snowballed.”

“I’m sorry”, he repeated, trying not to think about his mother. All of his life, he’d never seen her cry. His mother was a pillar of strength and humor. The one time he’d saw her cry was at his grandfather’s funeral. Seeing that killed him.

And to think that his mother thought he was dead—no, _killed_ , and lived with that was horrible. Way worse than the most horrible monster he’d ever seen.

Kimiko shook her head. “It’s not your fault. And we’re going to fix it…aren’t we?”

“We will”, Raimundo said, nodding firmly. “We’ll fix it.”

* * *

The next day, Raimundo was woken up early and rather rudely by an annoyed Omi. Saying nothing, he groaned and pulled his covers to his ears in an effort to will his friend out the infirmary.

“After twenty-three years”, Omi amusedly said, ripping the covers off again. “I’d have thought you’d finally wake up on time.”

Raimundo only groaned. “Why should I? I’m not even supposed to be in this time period, _lay_ _off_.”

“You’re here _now_ ”, the grown man had told him. “And you’ll abide by the temple rules until you’re not.”

“What rules are these?”, the boy said, taking a look at the clock in the infirmary. “Dude, it’s _barely_ five!”

Omi crossed his arms. “I’m aware. You have training to go to.”

“Training”, Raimundo said, unsure if he heard properly. He knew he shouldn’t wish it now, but _damn_ , he wished he was still frozen in that ditch. “What do I have to train for?”

“A mission”, Omi casually said, before smiling. “We’re planning to visit an old friend to bring you back to the past.”

“Oh”, Raimundo said, smiling before biting the smile back down. He didn’t want to be overconfident. “In that case, why do we need to train?”

“They…are a bit of a wild card, so we’re just taking precautions.”

“Fine. Who’s training me?”

If Raimundo had been told—at any point, ever—that he’d be in the future at the mercy of his now-much-older friends to whip him back into shape so he could time-travel back to the right timeline, he would have found it hilarious.

And yet, life had a way of smacking him in the face with the weirdest coincidences. It’d literally happened just like that.

“So, Rai”, Clay began, clapping his hands once. “What we’re gonna do today is work on our upper-body strength. Your element’s wind, so that means a lot of moving your upper body.”

A pause. “Do you need to write any of that down? Ya sure ya can remember?”

“I will because I already _know_ that”, Raimundo said, severely insulted. For three years, he’d been training at the temple _with_ Clay, who he really did not need telling him what to do. “Hey, Kid Colt—do I even need to do this? I know I was in ice, but before that I had _literally_ gotten out of training so how about we end Training Day right here?”

Clay interrupted him with a whistle. “Those jokes of yours never get old, do they, Rai? You know, for that, you win ten rounds around the courtyard!”

“Ten rounds? That’s hardly f—”

“Alright, now it’s eleven! You wanna make ‘em twelve?” Raimundo said nothing. “That’s what I thought.”

Fortunately, Raimundo knew running a few rounds wasn’t the end of the world even if it was completely inconvenient. What was not so fortunate, though, was that Clay had a lot more exercises and ‘warm-ups’ he needed his time-travelling friend to do.

After all the push-ups and the think-fast boxing and the weird ‘exercises’ Raimundo knew just had to be chores no one else wanted to do, Clay finally told him they were done.

“You know what, cowboy?”, Raimundo began, lying on the ground and too broken to move. “You’re mean.”

Clay chuckled. “You really so tired ya can’t think of nothing?”

“Oh, I _can_. Believe me”, the boy said. “Master Monk Guan is a _saint_ compared to you—you should be ashamed of yourself, dude.”

“Thanks, bud. Appreciate it”, the man said, pretending to be touched. “Anyway, you need to hit the showers and get dressed because you and I are going out. We still got errands to do.”

“Going where? I’ve suffered _enough_.”

Clay didn’t answer Raimundo’s questions and he really didn’t have to. An hour later, when they were both dressed and ready, they were both in the temple’s rickety old car on their way to their errand.

Breaking the silent spell, Clay sympathetically asked, “You okay, partner?”

“I feel like I’ve been spat out by a dinosaur”, Raimundo said. “And I’ve been through that already so I know what I’m talking about.”

“I know”, the cowboy said. “Look, if it makes you feel any better, we’re just going to get groceries. That’s it. And you can buy one thing you want, even it’s unhealthy.”

“Really?”, Raimundo sarcastically mused. “So you’re finally getting me chewing tobacco? Thanks, Dad, you’re the best!”

Clay rolled his eyes. “Best I can do is an ice-cream sandwich. I could throw in a coke too, but you’ll have to drink it in the car because Master Yang banned it.”

“Eh, fine.”

At the big grocery shop in town, Raimundo realized two things. One was that the jacket he’d borrowed from Osric was too small for him. And the other was that he really missed being normal situations.

Okay, maybe the situation wasn’t _totally_ normal. He was grocery-shopping with a thirty-something friend he’d last seen as a sixteen year-old. And if that wasn’t enough, he was acting like his age too, marveling at the discount guide in the supermarket’s newsstand.

But then again, Raimundo had no right to judge, considering he’d started gasping at the price-tags in every single aisle.

“Do _not_ tell me you’re getting hot sauce that costs that much”, Raimundo said, as Clay put that same sauce in the cart. “Do not. _Clay_ , are you kidding me?”

Clay gave him a look. “That’s how much things cost these days, Rai. Get a grip; you’ll expose us.”

Another thing the time-traveler thought was robbery was the price of the ice-cream they got later, but thankfully Clay pulled him away before his arguing with the vendor turned into cussing.

“Everyone’s a thief”, Raimundo muttered, right after a spoonful of ice-cream. “ _Everyone_.”

As they sat down to join him, Clay laughed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I missed seeing you lose it over the little things. It’s just…good.”

A pause. The man sighed. “It’s really good having you here, even if you look old enough to be the baby cousin I’m babysitting.”

“Yeah, and you look like you’re this dude who I should lie to and say I don’t even know what alcohol is but…it’s good to be here”, Raimundo said, not taking his eyes off his ice-cream. This was going to get weird, but he might as well share some trauma. “In that hole, I…I honestly thought that was it. But I’m home now, almost.”

“Important thing is you’re _here_ ”, Clay said, avoiding his eyes as he did. “And ya can bet your bottom dollar on that.”

Nodding absentmindedly, Raimundo turned his attention back to his rapidly melting ice-cream and thought about home. Not this home, this year. No, the one he’d left to be a stupid teenager sneaking out. He had no idea he could miss a place like he’d missed _his_ temple.

Catching Clay’s worried gaze now, Raimundo gave him a questioning look. “What?”

“Nothing”, the cowboy said. “I was just wondering. You know, partner, we’re gonna have to make some, uh, arrangements, right? Just in case you stay here too long. Birth certificate, school record, legal documents—to be in the clear and all.”

“Why?”, the time-traveler asked. “I mean, I’m not staying for too long…am I?”

“Partner, we love having ya here but, honestly, we just want you to go back to the right place _and_ the right time and there’s no telling exactly when that’ll happen. That’s all.”

A pause. Clay took a deep breath. “I know Kim talked to you and that you feel some type of way about wanting to do the right thing and whatnot, but you shouldn’t throw away your life for anyone. And even if things take a little too long, we’ll never stop trying. Never.”

Another pause. “And if tomorrow’s visit goes well, we won’t even have to worry.”

“Maybe we should”, Raimundo said, nervously. “Worry, I mean. You trained the shit out of me today because we’re meeting an ‘ally’ who might help me—what kind of _ally_ do I have to train to meet?”

Clay pursed his lips. “The kind that might like to test people before they consider helping them.”

“Don’t say”, Raimundo began, stuttering. “Don’t say it’s Chase Young. I’m—I can’t fight him when I _just_ came back from the dead. Dude, I’ll really die this time!”

“That won’t happen”, Clay firmly said. “Not on my watch. And it’s not Chase Young and you really have no reason to worry. Dashi’s coming with us. Say anything about the bastard but I’ll you he’s pretty much unbeatable.”

Raimundo blanched. “Dashi’s coming too?”

“Of course”, Clay said, rolling his eyes. “He has to go and showman the shit out of it because of he—never mind, it just makes me sick.”

“Who’s she?”, the time-traveler said, picking up on the hidden words. “Wait, does Dashi have, like, an evil girlfriend? Is that allowed?”

A pause. “He’s a _monk_ , like a _real_ one.”

“We know”, Clay said. “And he doesn’t have a girlfriend. You’ll see what I mean. And in the meantime, just tell me if there’s anything else you’d like to know. Like, something fun, you know.”

Raimundo shrugged. “I guess I wanna know when Omi started growing hair. I never knew he had, like, follicles like the rest of us.”

Chuckling, Clay put his empty ice-cream cup on the table and sighed. Unsteady and wobbling, the smile never left his face as he told his friend about Omi’s hair journey and all the horrible photos he needed to see of his bad haircuts.

* * *

It was a long, hard flight to Chase Young’s citadel the next morning. Mostly because there were five people on Dojo and one of them just couldn’t stop talking. It didn’t take any guesses to find out who.

“And I’ve chartered that peace treaty between the dragons of Dragon Island and the cave-dweller dragons, of course”, Dashi added, as an afterthought. It was all Raimundo could do to keep from screaming, considering the Grandmaster had taken it upon himself to ‘educate’ him.

A pause. Hopefully, this was _finally_ it—and nope. Dashi cleared his throat again.

“But that didn’t take much time, right guys?”, the Grandmaster said. “Imagine if I’d taken Kimiko’s advice on that one, though— _woof_!”

Raimundo didn’t need to look back at Kimiko to know she was simmering with unbridled rage. Her hand on his shoulder, previously there for comfort, was now literally sizzling. Gritting his teeth, he tried to hold back on the screaming.

“Yes, Dashi, we know”, Omi said, turning to face the talkative man sitting at the very back. Catching Raimundo’s pained face, he gave Kimiko a look. “We’re almost there, so…let’s just sit in silence till we get there.”

A pause. He sighed. “Maybe that way we can figure out what to say.”

“But that’s not any fun, Omi”, Dashi said, disapprovingly clicking his tongue. “Little Raimundo here should catch up on my adventures if he wants to go back with good gossip.”

“I think I already have enough material”, Raimundo said, offhandedly, to Dashi’s chagrin. There was just too much he knew now. He didn’t need to know about Dashi’s battles of wit with Hannibal Bean—the peach tearoom would be enough to scandalize the monks.

Flying lower, Dojo loudly spoke, “And we’re here, gang! Welcome to the cannibal’s lair and thanks for flying aboard Air Dojo. Next time, keep your hands and feet in at all times!”

At that declaration, Dojo unceremoniously shrunk and left his passengers to stick their small landings before scurrying to hide in Raimundo’s pockets. “Hide me so I don’t become Dojo soup—he’ll never guess I’m here, if he’s around!”

“Won’t that be the obvious choice, dude?”, Raimundo said, frowning at his talking pockets. “Obviously, he’d check the newbie’s pockets. And why, why won’t he be around? We have an appointment.”

Quickly scanning his friends and Dashi’s faces, the teenager saw that they’d all pretend they hadn’t heard him. After all the suspense and Clay’s insisting that they weren’t turning to Chase Young, it sure seemed convenient that they’d go to his lair.

But then again, Raimundo thought, maybe they lied so he’d keep his nerves out of whack. Sighing, he nodded to himself and tried to pay attention to the prattling dragon.

“—and don’t jinx it, okay, kid? You better not even look at me _or_ try to make me laugh like you always do, I’m very particular about my safety for _your_ safety, of course. Who else would protect the temple?”

Fixing his mouth to retort that Dojo was the first one to hide and the last one to ‘magically’ appear after the fights were over, Raimundo was soon stopped by Clay’s hands on his mouth. Shushing him, the cowboy gestured him to follow along quietly.

But wouldn’t Chase Young know they were coming, like he always did? Wisely, Raimundo didn’t voice that thought aloud and deigned to follow his friends, led by Dashi. Following the familiar paths, the gang eventually diverged until they stopped in the middle of the throne room…he guessed.

Scanning the place, Raimundo couldn’t really see a throne but somehow he just knew that this was a throne room. It was so sickeningly familiar in a way that he couldn’t exactly place.

Led by sheer intuition, Raimundo took a look at the top of the highest, inaccessible hill. And sure enough, there it was. It wasn’t exactly a throne, per se. It was more of an elegantly-carved jade bench that added to his compounding dread.

Though he used that inopportune moment to remember Chase Young had a visible distaste for thrones because ‘they were an ostentatious means of claiming power one didn’t have’, Raimundo had to ask.

“Well, where is he?”

“ _She_ ’s ready to receive you all”, a melodic yet sinister voice Raimundo knew too well said. “Welcome to my lair, Xiaolin runts.”

Only Dashi smiled to see her. “Wuya. Always a pleasure.”

“I can’t say the same”, Wuya said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. Raimundo didn’t miss that wave causing green sparks.

Something wasn’t right here. Raimundo looked around him again. They’d been in Chase Young’s citadel for a while now but none of his wildcats showed up. And there was a throne room for Wuya, of all people. And if that wasn’t already strange, none of his friends got into their fighting stances.

He responded the only way he knew how. “Yo, what the fuck?!”

“Is that…”, Wuya began, before flashing and materializing right in front of him. “I thought it was Raimundo! How did you get him back?”

Raimundo bristled. “None of your—”

“It’s a long story”, Kimiko said, nudging him in the ribs. “But we basically found him in our backyard, like literally. He was trapped in ice.”

“That’s a classic move”, Wuya said, though she was still surprised. “Did Risako find him? I keep telling you that girl has the makings of a great witch. Maybe if—”

“We told you before, we’re not interested in that, Wuya”, Kimiko said, monotonously. “What we want is—”

“No, no, _no_ ”, Raimundo said, loudly enough to drown them out. He made a time-out sign. “Someone explain why we’re talking to _Wuya_ like she’s a fucking _friend_! Now!”

Embarrassed and apologetic, like Raimundo was just a toddler throwing a public tantrum, Omi turned back to him. “Because she kind of is, sometimes. Wuya’s neutral now. She has to be.”

“Neutral”, Raimundo repeated, dumbfounded. “She has a throne and _magic_ and Chase fucking Young’s citadel—doesn’t sound too neutral to me.”

“She is, though”, Clay insisted. “And she can’t use her powers against Dashi so Dashi can’t use his powers against her. That’s neutral for us.”

“And I won that lair fair and square”, Wuya added, sticking out her tongue. “As the kids say, in your face!”

Raimundo ignored that. “Why can’t you hurt him?”

“Careful, kid. You sound like you actually want me to get hurt there”, Dashi said, giving him a playfully stern look. “Have some respect for your Grandmaster.”

“Believe me”, Wuya began, ignoring the man. “I wish I can—truly, I wish I can kill him every day but…”

“You can’t kill what you’ve revived and what you revived can't kill you”, Dashi smugly finished. “So that puts us at a stalemate.”

Wuya sighed. “It does.”

That could only mean one thing, but Raimundo couldn’t quite believe it. How could they leave out something as big as that? He should have been told as soon as he woke up.

Trying to even his breaths, Raimundo momentarily shut his eyes. “Does that mean—did Wuya…but how? She can’t do that!”

“She can”, Wuya said, rolling her eyes. “And your friends made that deal. They told me I’d have my powers back for one posthumous revival.”

Kimiko held her ground when he looked at her. “We know you think it’s wrong and stupid…and it might be, but we had to try. And I, for one, don’t regret it—it was a risk and I made the call.”

A pause. She gave Dashi a look. “Maybe I do regret it a little.”

“ _Hey_!”

“Wuya, we want you to send Raimundo back in time”, Omi said, fed up with the small talk. “He has to get back home.”

The witch gave them a sly smile. “And the price?”

“Anything”, Clay said, fixing Raimundo with a stare to not argue. “Anything you want.”

“Tempting”, Wuya said, clicking her tongue. “But I can’t do that.”

Even Dashi seemed surprised. “Excuse me?”

“I can’t do it; it’s an advanced spell”, Wuya said. “It’s a spell that needs two more witches because of the power it’ll bring back to me—it’ll be powerful enough to kill me for good if I do it on my own, unless…”

She paused. “Give me Risako to mentor. And Amabel too; she’ll do.”

“In your dreams”, Clay said, plainly enough. “Wuya, you know—”

“I _know_! You don’t want them to be witches and you’d rather die than have them be my apprentices, but that is what the spell requires.”

Dojo, wrapped around Raimundo’s neck now that the coast was clear, snorted. “So you can bring back the dead on your own but to send a kid back in time you need extra hands? _Psh_ , human magic!”

“Yes, _human_ magic”, Wuya seethed. “And if your pretentious dragon magic could have helped, you wouldn’t have come to me _both_ times.”

A pause. She gave the others a look, but her gaze lingered on Raimundo the most.

“Bending time, bending all those different realities and all the possibilities out there, to add or change one single variable…that doesn’t even come close to reversing death. Souls are _easy_.”

Wuya sighed again. “You wasted your time coming here.”

* * *

The fact that there hadn’t been a sunnier day in the temple, past or present, was almost insulting, considering the grim news.

Holing himself up in the infirmary, Raimundo did nothing but stare out the window. Even all of Risako’s pestering didn’t get through to him.

“You really can’t tell me what you heard?”, she almost begged. “Was it _that_ bad?”

_As bad as signing your future away_ , Raimundo thought. “No, it’s just…it was private so I can’t say. Ask your mom.”

“But you know she’ll just say no!”

Risako had no idea how much that sentence sounded like salt directly poured into his wound. Of course, Kimiko will say no. Clay will too. Raimundo was an idiot if he’d thought his friends would willingly give their kids to the Heylin just to send him back.

It was bad enough without hearing them argue about it all night, tip-toeing around the issue like they didn’t already know the answer. They yelled and yelled until there was nothing left to say that night.

“She can’t be serious”, Raimundo heard Clay yell, when he was right out the kitchen. “My little Ama—a _witch_? How will making her a witch create a time portal? What kind of bogus shit is that?!”

And he wasn’t the only talker, even if Omi was much calmer. “Guys, we just need to think about this, okay? Can’t we just agree to let the girls go but sign an agreement that it’s just for _this_ spell?”

A pause. “We could send Raimundo back and save the girls’ souls all in one go, we just need to—”

“What?”, Clay said, scornful. “Need to _what_? Because you know Wuya’s surely not that stupid—she has something up her sleeve for the girls. She always did.”

He scoffed. “Or do you not care that much because they’re not _your_ kids?”

“Fuck you! No, fuck you. You know if Osric was in the same situation, I’d have done the exact same!”

A pause. He sighed. “Don’t let her get into your head, Clay. That’s _how_ she wins.”

As that argument unfolded, Raimundo noticed that Kimiko’s voice was missing from it. For a second, he’d thought she wasn’t even there but then he’d heard her, faint in the background, whisper-arguing on the phone in Japanese.

He couldn’t make out what she said, of course, but he heard Risako’s name and could only assume it was either her father or Kimiko’s. Balling his fists at all the meaningless arguments, Raimundo left soon after.

“You have no idea how bad it is, Risako”, Raimundo said, blinking back to the present. “It’s…really bad.”

Risako rolled her eyes. “That’s descriptive. Even Ruka could do better than that.”

A pause. “You know, maybe—”

Before she could finish her sentence, though, two knocks sounded on the door before it slid open.

“Grandmaster”, Risako said, greeting him with a nod. “What are you doing here?”

Dashi kept the smile on her face. “I’m just here to talk with my fellow Dragon. Can you leave us alone for a few, Riza?”

“Sure, but don’t bore him to death with your stories, okay? It’s still fun seeing his tormented face around here.”

Once Risako left, Dashi’s smile dropped. “Has her mother’s attitude, that one. We can only hope she doesn’t grow up the same way. I can’t handle more than one Kimiko.”

_You barely deserve the Kimiko you have now_ , Raimundo thought. He crossed his arms.

“Did you want something, Dashi?”

“Yes, I wanted to talk to you”, Dashi admitted. “But first I gotta ask why it feels like you hate me when you don’t even know me too well.”

Raimundo didn’t change his stance. “I heard enough about you, though.”

“Stories aren’t like the real thing, you know. But let me guess”, the Grandmaster said, chuckling. “The kids told you all about how much of a meanie I was to them, right? And that was enough to sell you on me being a horrible person.”

Laughing again, the monk incredulously shook his head. “It’s always the same. A few people tell the same story about you a few times and people just believe it, no questions asked. But you know I must tell you, I liked it better when people spread stories about my heroics.”

As Raimundo crossed his arms and sullenly looked to the other side of the room, Dashi’s smile drooped.

“Here’s my side of the story. I woke up. I _literally_ woke up to find out that somebody brought me back from the dead. And they wanted my help because the current team of Dragons was missing a Dragon. So, I said okay.”

A pause. “Raimundo, I _helped_. That’s all I did. I found my temple in shambles and the kids defending it broken beyond repair. They couldn’t do anything and the fact that one of them was considered fit to lead was—well, I know Master Fung wanted to boost morale but that was _ridiculous_.”

Taking a moment, Dashi sighed. “I had to step in, even if I didn’t want to. For the sake of Xiaolin.”

“That’s a brilliant story”, Raimundo said, only to get a smile from Dashi. “No, really. It must have taken you _a_ _while_ to come up with that shit. Or maybe you saw it in a movie. I don’t buy it.”

A pause. “If that’s all—”

“It’s not all”, Dashi said, mouth a thin line. All traces of mirth vanished from his eyes. “I’m here to tell you that you have to make a decision just as hard as mine, for the good of Xiaolin. It’s a sacrifice, Raimundo, but you have to give up.”

A sigh. “You have to before it’s too late. Make your peace with this now before the tragedy consumes you. There’s no one who can give you advice like this—I _have_ been where you are.”

Dashi took a minute. “I woke up centuries later to find out everyone I knew and loved gone. _Dead_. My companions, my teammates—all dead. You haven’t, but I know being here makes you feel like a ghost.”

“I’m not a ghost”, Raimundo said, incensed. The air in the room was hard to breathe now. “I’m still alive and I can…I don’t even have to go to Wuya, I can look for the Sands of Time. They gotta be out there, somewhere. We sent them to the future.”

“They will come around eventually”, Dashi agreed. “But even if you look for The Sands, even if you wait, how old do you think you’ll be by the time you find them?”

When Raimundo said nothing, the monk added, “You won’t get to live, either way. You will be whatever age you are _even_ if you go back and that _will_ mess up the timeline—you heard Wuya. Time is a sensitive thing.”

A pause. “What you should do is _live_ , Raimundo. Make the most of it. Look, we can do it however you want—we can send you to an orphanage in Brazil. Or maybe one of your family members can take you home, if they can handle it.”

Wrinkling his nose, Dashi broke eye-contact and dug for something in his pockets. He pulled a handkerchief out and handed it to Raimundo, who just realized that he’d been tearing up.

Furiously rubbing his eyes, Raimundo rejected the handkerchief. “But it’s, but I—”

“It’ll be for the best”, Dashi said, resignedly. “The selfless thing to do. Just think about it.”

Risako didn’t come back in after the Grandmaster left and that was a relief, if any, to Raimundo. He had all the time in the world to think about Dashi’s words and he’d discovered he was right.

Raimundo had come to that conclusion himself but Kimiko told him off for suggesting it, but what could she do now? It was either he’d get stuck here or her daughter would be Wuya’s apprentice—no contest, if Raimundo had his say.

And because he did, Raimundo started forming an idea. One that will need at least one more day to work. First, Raimundo had to seek out Omi.

Although Raimundo had decided to have dinner and tea with the others, as well as stake out the old shrine and the kitchen after lights-out—both old favorites of Omi—, he didn’t actually run into his friend at all.

Omi hadn’t left his room at all after last night’s dinner, not even to get some tea with the others. A fact no one had noticed.

“I mean, I can’t blame him”, Clay said, jokingly. “We’re not exactly eating in the Champs-Élysées here.”

He threw Raimundo a look then. “But I reckon some of us would rather be in Paris right now.”

“I don’t follow”, Raimundo said, confused. “What are you—”

“That Wu hunt, remember?”, Kimiko said, trying for a smile. “The one in Paris—when we were at that Arche?”

“Oh yeah”, he said, still not remembering shit. This definitely happened after he went missing but his friends couldn’t remember that. “That one, that was a…fun time.”

Barely managing to avoid clawing his eyes out after that tea and the meaningless waiting later that night, Raimundo managed to find Omi early the next morning. Or, rather, Omi found him.

“Omi”, he said, half-groaning and not bothering to even get out of bed. “Are you making a habit of waking me up at the ass-crack of dawn?”

Scoffing, Omi paid that no mind. “I just might if you don’t fix the attitude; I’m the adult here.”

“I’m literally three years older than you”, Raimundo said, seething. “This time-travelling shit doe—”

“It counts right now”, the older guy said. “And we’re talking about something actually important here, okay?”

A pause. “Risako told me Dashi came here to see you.”

“Risako”, Raimundo said, mirroring his friend’s faux-curious tone. “Sure can’t keep her nose out of people’s business.”

Omi rolled his eyes. “Three guess where she gets _that_ from. Anyway, I want to know what Dashi told you.”

“Nothing”, Raimundo said, taking a second too long before speaking. “You know just the usual ‘chin up, champ, and don’t forget I’m the greatest’ shit he says.”

“Sure, that sounds like him”, Omi said, still suspicious. “But Dashi never leaves a conversation without making someone feel like shit, so tell me what did he say. Do it while I’m being nice.”

“You’re not the boss of me, so I don’t have to tell you. Isn’t Kimiko the leader here?”

Eyebrows soaring in shock, the man said nothing for a moment. And then he smiled, so sweetly it felt sinister. “Do you really want to involve Kimiko _or_ Clay in this?”

“…No”, Raimundo said, worried and a little impressed. “But if I had to, why wouldn’t I? It’s better than talking to you, Inspector Big Head.”

“Okay, I did _not_ miss that”, Omi said, more to himself than anything. “And trust me, talking to me is better because at least, I’ll how to handle Dashi. Those two, on the other hand? We’ll be repeating the incident from ten years ago.”

Raimundo raised a curious eyebrow. “What’s the incident from te—”

“You _really_ don’t wanna know”, Omi said, blanching at the thought. “You just need to know that authorities got involved and we nearly lost the temple. And our dignity. And about ten thousand dollars.”

A pause. “So, tell me.”

“He just came to tell me that he didn’t think dealing with Wuya was a good idea”, Raimundo began, truthfully. Carefully stringing the words, he added, “And I told him I thought maybe finding the Sands was a better alternative and he said that it was a—a choice, you know.”

Pursing his lips, Raimundo shrugged. “And that’s it. That was the whole conversation.”

“Good”, Omi said, exhaling a much-held breath. “He came by my room a while ago with a spreadsheet of the best Brazilian orphanages so I assumed…well, never mind. I’m glad he said nothing else to you.”

A pause. “Uh, I’ll guess I’ll let you get some sleep then. Wake you up at noon?”

“Yeah”, Raimundo said, nodding. There had been one weighing on him since he’d heard it and he couldn’t really let it go. Now that Omi was here, he might as well. “Hey, Omi?”

Right before he slid the infirmary door open, Omi turned. “Yeah?”

“I just wanted to say…”, the boy began, waking closer to his old friend. Nervously, he bit his lips and added, “You know, I just wanted to say it wasn’t your fault. That day—it wasn’t your fault.”

“You spoke to Kimiko”, Omi said, sighing. He shook his head. “No, Raimundo, it was. I—I knew you were going somewhere and I didn’t stop you.”

A pause. He shook his head again, clearly more than disgusted with himself. “I didn’t stop you and then we almost lost you. If I’d just gotten off my ass that day, you would have stayed.”

Sighing, Omi gave him a resigned look. “Clay wouldn’t have left and we wouldn’t have brought back Dashi.”

A pause. “Do you even know how old Dashi was when he died? He was in his forties— _fucking_ forties. I know that’s not exactly old but neither is fifteen.”

Omi shook his head and bitterly scoffed. “You were a kid. You _are_ just a kid.”

“And so were you, you were a kid too”, Raimundo insisted, patting his on the shoulder without feeling all kinds of weird. “You were like thirt—your thirteenth birthday was the week after I left. You were _twelve_ , Omi. How is it your fault?”

He paused. “Listen, don’t…don’t beat yourself up about it anymore. You couldn’t have stopped it.”

“But if I—”

“No, I know how stubborn I am”, the boy said. "I wouldn’t have listened to you at all, so it wouldn’t have made sense. And I’m telling you now, quit trying to take credit for my stupidity, okay?”

Raimundo chuckled. “I love to take full responsibility for things like that. Really adds to my Teenage Terror résumé.”

“Fucking hell”, Omi said, as Raimundo was once again thrown off his balance to hear Omi curse so naturally. Chuckling, he hugged him. “It’s so good to have you back.”

After Omi left, Raimundo tried not to feel terribly guilty about the vault keys that he’d just snatched off his friend. Sleight of hand wasn’t the best trick he’d learned for nothing.

And now that he’d had the key, all the Wind Dragon had to do was find a way into the vault, all while being as unassuming as possible. And for that, no one was a better target than little Amabel Lynn.

“And that’s the Mind Reader Conch, now that’s one nasty Wu”, Amabel was saying, as she gave him the abridged tour in the vault. “And this here Wu is the Woozy Shooter—Auntie Kim says it’s fun but I ain’t allowed to try it.”

Pausing, she turned to give Raimundo a curious look. “I thought you were a Dragon with my Daddy and everyone else. How can you just forget these stuff?”

“The ice leaks into your head, I guess”, Raimundo said, feigning innocence. “I don’t remember half these things!”

As he turned around in wonder to sell that performance, his eyes just so happened to land on the one Wu that made a smile effortlessly come to his face. “Wait, is that…”

After knowing how Dashi really was, Raimundo had decided that there was no true good he’d done this world except make the Shen Gong Wu. And the fact that he’d created the Sword of the Storm doubled his points.

Before he’d left for the quest that would leave him frozen for a quarter of a century, Raimundo had wanted nothing more than to take the Sword with him. He did…but then he’d judged that he’d already taken his Wudai weapon and the Orb of Tornami and this would be too much.

Curiously, he wondered if the sword would feel just the same like it did the last time he’d held it. Before he could touch it, though, Amabel intervened and pulled his arm back.

“Don’t touch the glass, that’s the one rule”, Amabel said. “Uncle Omi will have my head _and_ yours if you know you touched it. He’s very meticulous about the vault!”

Raimundo coughed and looked away. “Yeah, I know. All the glass displays really show that.”

“Yeah…but you know it wasn’t always like this”, Amabel said. “Daddy said it was just a method to keep the Wu safe after Uncle Omi lost his favorite. He says only Uncle Omi knows where the keys are.”

_And now, only two of us do_. “Yeah, I’ll bet. Omi always loved a power trip.”

Raimundo cleared his throat and gave the girl a look. “Hey, Ama, can you give me a moment? I’ve…don’t tell anyone I said this but some of these Wu, they meant a lot to me—and I just wanted to—”

“Say no more”, Amabel said, gullibly understanding. It’d physically pained Raimundo to think how a life under Wuya’s tutelage would affect her. “But just one minute ‘cause I don’t want—”

“Omi to have our heads, I know. I won’t be late.”

And late, Raimundo was not. He’d immediately set to work and took the Chopsticks first before moving along to the other Wu he needed, shrinking them as he went along.

With his Wu, Raimundo snuck into Omi’s room and left the keyring in one of the pants his friend had lying around. Swiftly afterwards, Raimundo sat through another awkward dinner and excused himself to go to bed early.

“Maybe he just has some jetlag”, he heard Kimiko say after he’d left the kitchen. “I think losing a decade or two will do that to you.”

And she had no idea how right she was—those headaches were a _nightmare_ —but Raimundo was not actually going to sleep. Sitting on his mat, he’d waited until every light outside was turned off. It didn’t take too long.

By ten o’clock, it’d been lights-out for the kids and around twelve, the adults would start going off to their rooms too. Around twelve-thirty, Raimundo put on Osric’s too-small jacket and took his plastic bag of Wu and headed out.

Flying on auto-pilot, Raimundo stopped his mind from racing in sixty different directions. He just had to make it out the gates. This was easy. _Just leave and it’ll be okay for everyone else—don’t think about them, don’t think about their faces_.

This was a trip, he tried to think, just a trip except a little more indefinite. As he made his way into the courtyard no one checked after midnight, Raimundo sighed. That relief lasted for exactly two seconds when he saw the dark figure coming nearer.

“Ruka, you’re up”, Raimundo said, surprised and cautious. “Why are you still up? It’s past your bed-time.”

The little boy nodded. “Yeah, it is but I feed the fish at the koi pond at this time—I just think it’s peaceful. Where are _you_ going?”

_Crap_. “I gotta, you know, I gotta take out some trash”, he said, holding up the plastic bag for good measure. “Did you think I was going somewhere else?”

“I thought you were going to run away”, Ruka casually said. “Amabel and Osric said you might, but I thought it was a bit ridiculous.”

Raimundo raised an eyebrow. He’d already known Osric was observant and avoided him; Amabel, though— _that_ turned out to be a surprise. “Why is that ridiculous?”

“Because you don’t have anyone to go to”, the Japanese boy said, shrugging. “I heard Uncle Omi say so today—he said your mom is very sick so you can’t see her and I didn’t catch the rest but it sounded bad.”

“He said that?”, Raimundo said, swallowing the shard of glass in his throat. He had a feeling he wouldn’t want to know either. And apparently this feeling showed up on his face.

“Are you sad? You know you can cry if you want to, that will make you feel better.”

“I don’t want to and I’m not s—okay, I’m a little upset”, Raimundo said. “Everything is different and I don’t know how to deal with it, Ruka. Do you know how that feels…like, when people tell you should be grateful but you just want to scream because you’re really angry?”

“I do”, Ruka said with a nod. “My last name isn’t like Risako’s—it’s Suzuki and everyone says it’s a cool name but some people make fun of it because they say it reminds them of the car and that makes me _really_ upset.”

Despite how hurt he felt, Raimundo found himself laughing. “You’re so…you’re really weird, Ruka, and I mean that in the best way. Never change.”

“Why are you saying it like that? Are you really running away?”

Stopping in his tracks, Raimundo froze and slowly turned to give the younger boy a shrug. It was so easy to say yes because, well, he was but something about this odd conversation made him realize his mind changed.

What would a fifteen year-old do in a world that pulled about two decades from under him? Raimundo didn’t want this. He didn’t want to pretend like he could make it work either because he was going to find his way back home (to his _real_ home) and he was going to become an actual Dragon, _goddammit_ , he was going to grow up.

Because of this sudden influx of rage and frustration, Raimundo knew one thing for sure. He was about to do something incredibly dumb and reckless and on-brand.

* * *

Because this was a normal day at the Xiaolin temple, or at least as normal as it got with a Wind Dragon barely brought back from the brink of death in their midst, one thing was certain.

Two hours after lights out, Clay and Kimiko and Omi were meeting at the old shrine to spend an entirely kid-free, responsibility-free hour. No one had ever said anything about worrying themselves to a meltdown, though.

“—and I know I just didn’t do it”, Omi said, incredulously. “I never put my keyrings into those pants. Never. I can jut tell someone took them from me and put them back wherever but I checked the vault and nothing’s missing.”

Kimiko frowned. “Do you think Dashi is fucking with you again? You know how entitled he feels to those keys, Mr. I Created Everything and You’re All Losers.”

“That’s one hell of a name, I sure do hope it’s hyphenated”, Clay said, chuckling a little. “But we were discussing something important, y’all, and we weren’t even done yet so let’s take a stab at that first.”

“Okay, so run that idea by me again”, Omi was saying, gesturing with a beer in his hands. “Just so I can make sure I actually understood.”

Clay sighed but did as he was told. “I say, we send him to a boarding school so he’ll grow up with kids his own age and learn to adjust. There won’t be better structure and if that ain’t a fact, God’s a possum.”

“Right”, Omi said, sharing a look with Kimiko, who wrinkled her nose. “But why did you consider that maybe Raimundo won’t be jumping for joy to being sent away? He just got here.”

Kimiko agreed, “Also, dude, boarding schools are a nightmare, take it from me! You send one kid in and they come out with all kinds of issues and they just start acting out so much, the next day their face is everywhere for fighting a Subway mascot at a skate park!”

Noticing their looks, she added, “At least, that’s what I heard, you know.”

“ _Anyway_ ”, Omi said, side-eying her. “Kimiko’s a little right. What if he acts out there, Clay? What if someone pisses him off—and you _know_ it will happen—and his suppressed element goes out of control? He could hurt the other kids.”

A pause. “And before you know it, some kid will call their mom about the weirdo with the wind powers and every person on the PTA will be calling for our heads on sticks. They’ll _sue_.”

Omi sighed. “You know what we have to do. Someone’s gotta take him.”

“I’m out”, Kimiko said, shaking her head. “There’s no way I’m taking him. I’m already raising Risako and she doesn’t need any encouragement to go insane.”

“Alright, well…Clay? How about you?”

“Well, I can’t do that either”, Clay said. “My Ama’s impressionable enough as is. Looks like it’s gonna be you, bud.”

“Me?”, Omi said, pointing a finger at himself. “Me, the person who has _never_ raised children? The person who doesn’t have a spare bedroom? You want me to take Raimundo to New York so I can raise him—no way in hell!”

When he noticed their scornful expressions, he added, “And I have Osric since you’re all playing the parent card!”

“Osric doesn’t even live with you”, Kimiko said, scrunching her nose. “Face it, Omi—you’re going to be raising Rai. It’s the facts.”

“Well, take those facts back because I’m not doing it. How about we get an actual parent to do it then? A parent who will know what to do with him so don't even act like I'm talking about you, okay?”

“Hey, watch yer language, partner!”, Clay loudly said, before processing the rest of the words. “Are you…you’re not seriously suggesting we put Raimundo for adoption, are you?”

“I mean, not when you say it like that.” Noticing the looks, he scoffed. “Come on, guys! I hate this more than you do but what’s the alternative? He needs some structure and his parents…they’re elderly now.”

A pause. “How evil do you have to be to want them to raise a teenager with unstable powers?”

“Why can’t he just stay here then?”, Kimiko began, biting the inside of her cheek. “I know the elders said they don’t want to be a part of this for some reason but we have to try to convince them. He’s already here and he’ll be at home here and there are other kids his age.”

A pause. “Like, obviously they’re training to be monks and all but he knows how to make friends. He’ll be alright….I think. And we’ll check on him, right?”

“Obviously”, Clay said, nodding. “I reckon that’s the best option we got, y’all. Then we sh—”

Before the Earth Dragon could finish his sentence, though, the doors to the old shrine were slammed open with a panting Ruka, who didn’t seem at all lost or confused about where he found the adults.

“Why are you not in bed?”, Kimiko began, before raising her hand. “You know what, not now. What’s wrong—did something happen?”

Still panting, the boy didn’t answer so his mother immediately jumped to conclusions. “Is it your sister? Did she—”

“Raimundo left”, Ruka said, the minute he could properly breathe. “He just left the temple. And he had a big bag with him, I think he was running away but…”

“But what?”, Clay asked, concerned. “What happened, bud?”

The boy nervously bit his lip. “I don’t know, I asked him if he was running away and he just…he made it seem like he was _going_ somewhere, but it didn’t feel good. It felt like something bad was about to happen, Mama.”

“You did good, Ruka”, Kimiko said, reassuringly putting both her hands on her son’s shoulders. “We’ll take it from here.”

“Are you sure? Because I can help and I can wake the others and—”

“No, no, don’t do that”, she said, calmly. “Just go to bed and we’ll deal with it. Everything will be okay tomorrow, don’t worry.”

Giving his mom and the two other adults a look, Ruka pursed his lips and nodded. The minute he darted out of the shrine and back into his room, Kimiko turned to her teammates and her expression fell.

“We need to move”, she said. “I have a feeling I know where he’ll be.”

“Me too”, Omi said, dread visible on his face. “Let me check the vault again first.”

Clay sighed. “Please, Lord, let it not be what it is I’m thinking of. Let him not be that much of an idiot that he don’t know ‘come here’ from ‘sic ‘em’.”

But ten minutes later, when Omi was back from the Wu vault with a face that told more than his words did, his teammates sighed and knew they had to prepare for the worst.

“He made Shadow Splice copies of the Wu he took”, Omi said, exasperated. “That little—”

“Genius”, Clay said, only to get Omi’s death glare and Kimiko’s quizzical eyebrow raise. “Come on, y’all, that’s a smart move. You gotta give credit where credit’s due.”

“So he pickpocketed my keys and stole a few things from the vault? What’s so genius in that? Everybody’s done that like a thousand times already.”

“Nobody’s done that after the new security system, though”, Kimiko said, giving him a look. Chuckling, despite herself, she added, “You know, we could used that thinking against Hannibal. Remember that last showdown?”

Sighing, Clay nodded before giving the other two a look. Although he had an idea, and he knew Kimiko shared that same one, he still had to ask. Just to be safe.

“We need to put our heads together and think”, he said. “Where would a fifteen year-old with self-esteem issues go? And I know it’s not the mall.”

“How about therapy”, Kimiko said, sarcastically. “I know we should take him there ourselves.”

“Why are you two beating around the bush?”, Omi asked, feeling his dread compound. “We know where he is…right?”

Sharing a look with Kimiko, Clay nodded. “We do and if he gets there first, he’s going to ruin everything. We’ll need to—”

A pause. He forcefully shut his eyes for a moment. “Call your families, prepare yourselves.”

“I’m already on it”, Kimiko said, texting as she spoke. “I really hope we get there on time.”

Omi sighed and fished his phone out. “Me too. I’m calling Jermaine—this is _stupid_.”

* * *

It didn’t take Raimundo all that much time to get to the citadel. In fact, the minute he’d dropped his bag of Wu, just two miles outside the temple, and fished the Golden Tiger Claws out, everything happened in a blur.

He didn’t even have a plan. And he didn’t have the time to get one. It felt like that night, that one night three years ago, when he decided he didn’t really care what his dad thought and hitched a ride from the circus to the airport without telling anybody.

It was eerily the same because then, Raimundo’s plane ticket was left over by the Xiaolin Temple. Now, he was using yet another temple asset except this time the destination was different. And although Chase Young’s citadel was even more terrifying at night, the lightning added a nice touch.

“Well, well, well”, Wuya said, hands on her hips and no surprise on her face. “To what do I owe this sudden pleasure?”

“Let me guess? The lightning was for me”, Raimundo said, rolling his eyes, despite his nerves. “You really shouldn’t have.”

Shrugging, the Heylin witch leaned against a wall and waited for him to state his purpose, though he knew she definitely didn’t need to. That smirk on her face, so expectant and knowing, made him want to say something rude just for the hell of it.

But Raimundo really didn’t have the time. If Ruka was anything like his mother, half the temple definitely knew he’d left by now.

“I’ll go to you”, he said, firmly. “If you send me back—and I know you can do it—I’ll go to you willingly, okay? I’ll be…I’ll be your apprentice for good. Just send me back, _please_.”

“Foolishness is a rare quality in warriors nowadays” Wuya said, sighing. “But I have to say, I still admire it.”

A pause. “Why do you think my answer will change?”

“Because”, Raimundo began, wracking his brain as he went. “You need an apprentice.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do. I _know_ it.”

Maybe he was bluffing. No, he was definitely bluffing but he had to try every little thing that could help him. And Raimundo had seen the way Wuya’s expression changed when his old friends refused her offer that day. She was less than pleased. She’d looked a little pale, like she was running out of time.

“I don’t know why but you need one apprentice at least”, Raimundo said, gaining confidence. “You keep asking about their daughters, like…like you need them for more than just turning them Heylin.”

“What?”, Wuya said, raising an eyebrow. “Can’t turning those little girls Heylin just be reason enough? We do need the manpower, let me tell you. Things have been a little lackluster for us for a while.”

He nodded. “You need the manpower, but not for the Heylin as a whole—for you. Something’s happening, it’s all over your face.”

A pause. “You’re fighting Chase Young…or Hannibal, I don’t know. Maybe it’s something else but it’s _there_ and you can’t stand a chance on your own.”

“Let the children talk enough”, Wuya said, sneering. “And they believe all the shit that comes out of their mouths! How dare you assume—”

“I’ll fight with you”, Raimundo said, nodding sincerely. That look on her face, harsh and nervous, made everything click. “Isn’t _that_ some shit? You know you’re going to win if you have me with you.”

He paused, giving her an incredulous look. “A Dragon who uses magic too? You’d be unstoppable and you know it. Just send me back.”

“Hmm”, the Heylin witch simply hummed, as she gave him a onceover. “You truly have no idea what you’re giving up, are you?”

“Uh, I’m guessing my freedom?”

“Oh, it’s more than that”, she said, face completely still. “I was there when you and your little friends made that whole scene. When you wagered your freedoms for that little runt’s.”

A pause. “You tried finding loopholes and you almost got it. And then you tried to be bold and it worked well in your favor, I’ll give you that. But with me, there will be no wagers. None.”

“I know that”, Raimundo said, trying not to fumble his words. _Keep your cool, keep your cool_. She couldn't know his plan, not yet. “I know tha—”

“No, you don’t”, Wuya said, smirking as she shook her head. “With me, there will be no wagers and this is part of the deal. You got lucky with Chase Young—deals with witches are irreversible and loopholes don't exist.”

A pause. “Once you’ve made the deal, you’re mine for good.”

Heart sinking into his stomach, Raimundo knew that the witch meant every word she’d said. There was no turning back in this. This was it and if he said yes, it’ll all be over. It was only logical that he said no.

Raimundo only had to say no, but he just couldn’t. How could he, when that only meant turning his back on growing up with his friends and family? No, there _had_ to be another way. There was _always_ another way.

Even when it didn’t seem like Raimundo could just turn back and apologize for what he’d done to the temple (and the world), there was a way. Even when it didn’t seem like Omi was going to ever return to their side and Master Fung’s chi was locked, there was a way. And he just had to believe it.

Raimundo clenched his jaw. “Send me back.”

“Very well, you made your choice”, Wuya said, sighing before a victorious smirk took over her face. “I’ll give you what you want, apprenti—”

“Like hell you will”, Kimiko said, stepping in, followed by the other two Dragons. “That’s a _minor_ , Wuya, and a minor can’t sign on major life decisions unless they’re with an adult witness.”

A pause. “And that’s us, FYI, and we say no.”

“What are you doing?”, Raimundo said, almost inaudibly. “ _What_ are you doing? That’s my only chance to leave!”

“It’s not, partner”, Clay said, giving him an admonishing look. “There’s another way. We figured it out on the way here after Ruka told us your stupid idea.”

Despite the situation, Raimundo shook his head and glared at Kimiko. “Your kid—”

“Was right”, Kimiko continued, frowning.

Barely looking at his direction before turning his head to the witch, Omi nodded. “And you won’t like what we’re planning but it’s been decided.”

He paused. “Wuya, we’ll perform the spell with you.”

“What? Omi, no—”

“We’ll do the spell with you”, he repeated. “And afterwards, we’ll be in your service.”

When the witch said nothing, Clay interjected with a smile, “Come on, you must consider it. Three grown Dragons are much more powerful than two little girls. You’ll rule the world _without_ neutrality.”

Raimundo wanted to scream. “That’s exactly why you can’t do this! Look, I appreciate it but you gotta leave. Let _me_ do it.”

“We’re not letting a fifteen year-old do nothing”, Clay said, smile instantly fading as he went into no-nonsense mode. “Raimundo, you got one, two, _three_ adults here and they’re all telling you to shut yer yap and wait till you get home.”

He smiled, grimly. “We made our decision.”

“But you can’t—you can’t—”

“Goodbye, Raimundo”, Clay said, hugging him tightly. “Next time, I’ll see ya—well, I’ll see ya when I see ya, okay?”

“No, Clay—”

“We missed you so much”, Kimiko said, hugging him too. “And we’ll all be so happy if— _when_ we see you again. Take care of yourself.”

Speechless and trying to push out his refusals, Raimundo found himself in another hug as Wuya and the other two Dragons took their positions in the circle, getting ready for the spell. As Omi hugged him, Raimundo could feel him chuckling.

“If it all goes well”, Omi whispered. “If we manage to overpower her intent, this future will probably not exist anyway. But wishing you good luck won’t do any harm, so…do us proud, okay?”

Before Raimundo could say anything, Omi pushed him to the center of the circle as he took his own place. At this, Wuya’s chanting got louder as the energy starting manifesting around them, green and sinister and throttling.

Raimundo couldn’t feel the air around him anymore—there was nothing to control or to will back. It was all gone and he couldn’t breathe. He couldn't move. Gasping, he tried to open his eyes but the weight of the energy around barely let him do anything. Still, he forced himself to try until he could take a peek.

It wasn’t looking very good. The dark green energy surrounded everything. It was everywhere and it felt miserable, exactly like it did the first time Wuya unleashed her hell on the world.

If Raimundo could have moved, he would have rushed to his friends, all under various degrees of pressure and still fighting. He would have done anything to help. For a moment, Raimundo regained the feeling in his arms and almost went for it.

Before he could take a single step, the green energy slowly began transforming into a blinding red that was strangely made him feel some kind of hopeful. As the energy lined his arms and legs and torso, Raimundo barely managed to say a word to his friends and the deviously-grinning Wuya.

Gasping, he tried one last time. “Good—”

In a flash, everything around Raimundo was gone. He couldn’t move or breathe or talk. All he felt was searing hot pain before that pain felt like the rush of the cold water and ice again. And then, it was all calm.

Everything was warm and the air found its way into his lungs again. Raimundo’s eyes fluttered open, unseeing at first. He blinked twice before he could make out the shapes and then he blinked a third time just before the vault started solidifying in the fog in front of him.

Confused, Raimundo suddenly felt the heaviness in his hands and when he looked downwards, his confusion grew louder. The Orb of Tornami almost shone in his hands and it’d felt sinister for some reason.

It was strange. A thousand images had passed in front of his eyes, a thousand that made him want to cry and scream and laugh, but now his memory was as blank as snow.

Shivering, he put the Orb back in its place and decided to ignore his déjà vu. While he was at it, Raimundo decided that maybe it was better to go on that quest another day, when he wasn’t half so disoriented.

As one day went by and then the next, though, Raimundo still couldn’t figure out why he kept hounding Omi to grow out his hair and why he couldn’t really look Kimiko in the eye without remembering something vague and sad.

He couldn’t figure out why it felt like he and Clay had been through a similar experience when he saw the cowboy walk around in a confused daze muttering about a Xiaotong and genie wishes. But most of all, there was one mystery Raimundo was dying to get to the bottom of.

Frowning at his small closet again, he wondered out loud, “Where the _fuck_ did that jacket come from?”


End file.
